Running Cypher v2 — for GMs

Setting up the table

Pick the v2 ruleset when you create the campaign — the edition is pinned there and every member's characters must match it. The campaign page adds two v2 dials: the genre (which filters the master skill list, the genre ability lists and treatment-time expectations) and the species toggle (the optional fourth character slot). The seeded OG-CRD content covers descriptors, species, types and foci out of the box; when you want custom material, author types with their wound capacity bonuses, freely-usable weapon and armor classes, fixed tier-1 abilities and equipment bundles; give foci their flowcharts; rank superhero types 1–5.

Content curation. The campaign page's "Campaign content" panel lets you curate exactly which types, foci, genre abilities and skills the table allows — the builder only offers what you check, and characters built on disallowed content can't be assigned to the campaign. Curation is entirely optional: until you save a selection everything is allowed, and you can always just review and reject a character instead. On a campaign with a genre, "Reset to book bundle" preselects that genre's chapter (your own homebrew included) as a starting point; "Allow all" removes the lists again. The same lists are available to AI assistants through the create_campaign and update_campaign MCP tools.

Announcing attacks

An NPC attack on a v2 PC is announced with its wound severity (minor/moderate/major) and, when it applies, the area flag — the GM attack form carries both. The player then chooses block or dodge on their defense card (armor modifiers, area hindrance and wound hindrance are computed for them; the shield rider appears when they carry one). Poison, psychic and other special attacks stay pool damage: use the speed/intellect damage kinds and the engine drains the Pool, converting the overflow to wounds at zero. Your direct damage entry keeps sheet semantics — a number is Pool damage with conversion, a severity deals the wound directly.

Wound bookkeeping at the table

• Shields absorb whole wounds into their own boxes (3 minor / 2 moderate / 1 major); a major breaks them, rests never clear them, and repairs are a resource-point downtime activity.
• Treatment is a healing-skill Intellect task at difficulty 0/3/6 by severity — the engine injects the difficulty; how long treatment takes is your genre call.
• Rally costs 2/5 Might (no Edge); majors rally only in superhero games (10). Guarding records a round-long party-visible stance.
• First/Last timing is recorded guidance: heavy weapons default to Last, light weapons may declare First, and out-of-order actions are noted in the log rather than blocked.
• Recovery healing follows the slot: 10 minutes all minor, 1 hour one moderate or all minor, 10 hours all moderate plus one major behind the difficulty-6 Might task — the roll happens at your table; the app takes your word for it.

Superhero ranks

A v2 superhero type's rank grants rank+1 power shifts — the same nine categories as a classic supers campaign, assigned on the sheet and applied by the engine to tasks, damage and recoveries. Assigning past the allowance is recorded as a house rule, like everything else.

Discord and AI GMs

The Discord surfaces follow the edition automatically: v2 sheets show wound rows, defense prompts name the incoming wound, /sheetwright encounter rally and the recovery healing options appear, and heavy weapons default attacks to Last. An AI assistant connected over MCP should read get_rules with your campaign id — it returns the v2 primer for a v2 table, so the assistant plays wounds and block/dodge instead of classic damage.

What the app enforces (almost nothing)

Rules are guidance: capacity overflows, short pools, tier-gate violations and off-chart picks warn and land in the character's house-rule journal. The app blocks only integrity problems — mixing editions in one campaign, flowchart cycles, healing absent wounds, unknown item vocabulary and the like. Your table's rulings are the rules; Sheetwright just remembers them.